1 outrageous stat for each MLB team
Most Major League Baseball teams have played between eight and 11 games this season, with the Oakland Athletics the lone outlier at 13.
It's a sample that isn't suitable for much genuine analysis. After all, it amounts to roughly 6 percent of the entire season. However, it does yield some wild statistics that prove anything really can happen in America's pastime.
Here is one crazy stat for each team so far (up to April 7).
Arizona Diamondbacks: Diamondbacks pitchers have four home runs. That's more than Indians, Reds, and Giants outfielders combined.
Atlanta Braves: Rookie starter Kyle Wright has thrown 32.1 percent of his pitches in the strike zone, the lowest mark of any qualified starter in baseball. No pitcher has finished a season with fewer than one-third of pitches in the strike zone since the beginning of the millennium.
Baltimore Orioles: The Orioles' bullpen alone has given up 15 home runs. Only one starting staff in baseball - the Red Sox - has allowed as many long balls. Bonus fun fact: Chris Davis is 0-for-23 to start the year as he closes in on the record for the longest hitless streak in MLB history. He owns an 0-for-44 slump dating back to last season.
Boston Red Sox: Collectively, Red Sox starters own an atrocious 0-7 record. Last year, the team didn't lose its seventh game until April 28, when Boston was 19-7. A starter wasn't responsible for a loss until April 11, when Masahiro Tanaka defeated David Price.
Chicago Cubs: Jason Heyward has grounded into a league-leading five double plays in 30 at-bats. Eight players didn't reach that mark over the entire 2018 campaign (including Matt Carpenter, who hit into zero).
Chicago White Sox: After leading all of baseball in strikeouts last year, Yoan Moncada has been punched out fewer times than Mookie Betts. Cleveland infielder Eric Stamets has struck out twice as often in 11 fewer trips to the plate.
Cincinnati Reds: The Reds - the team that employs Joey Votto, who's ranked no lower than third in on-base percentage over the past four seasons - collectively have the worst OBP of any ballclub. Tucker Barnhart's team-leading mark of .360 ranks lower than the collective rosters of the Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees, Phillies, Braves, and Mariners.
Cleveland Indians: Narrowly ahead of the Reds by one point in OPS, Cleveland's abysmal .535 mark ranks 29th in MLB. Two teams - the Dodgers and Mariners - have better slugging percentages than that.
Colorado Rockies: From 2015-18, no third baseman hit more home runs than Nolan Arenado. This season, after signing a $260-million extension with the Rockies, Arenado has hit zero and ranks 16th at the hot corner.
Detroit Tigers: Closer Shane Greene set an MLB record by notching his seventh save in the team's first 10 games. While that is remarkable, it means the Tigers (who aren't expected to compete) needed a save in each of their seven wins and sit first in their division with a run differential of plus-1.
Houston Astros: Since starting the season with a 1-for-15 slump, Alex Bregman has gone on an 11-for-20 tear. However, he hit his only home run of the season during the opening skid.
Kansas City Royals: The Royals lead all of baseball by deploying a defensive shift in 53.4 percent of plate appearances, per Baseball Savant. They're also still managed by a skipper who wants to ban the shift. Bonus fun fact: Adalberto Mondesi currently ranks fifth in the league in barrels per plate appearance, behind noted sluggers Gary Sanchez, Pete Alonso, Mike Trout, and Jose Abreu.
Los Angeles Angels: Mike Trout's responsible for more than half of the Angels' nine homers (55.6 percent). The two-time MVP has also struck out fewer times than he has hit a home run (3 Ks, 5 HRs).
Los Angeles Dodgers: Cody Bellinger has already hit seven home runs. Teams still in search of their seventh dinger: the Pirates, Rockies, Giants, Indians, and Tigers. In fact, the Indians and Tigers combine to tie Bellinger's total.
Miami Marlins: Tayron Guerrero got a swing and miss on 23.6 percent of his pitches thrown so far. The only pitchers who've fared better are Josh Hader, Ken Giles, and Edwin Diaz.
Milwaukee Brewers: Josh Hader - a reliever - ranks second in pitcher WAR, according to FanGraphs. The left-hander is the only pitcher in the top 30 without a start, and he's 128th in innings pitched.
Minnesota Twins: Trevor May hasn't struck anyone out, walked anyone, or allowed a run over four innings pitched in his first four appearances. That's the longest such streak to start a season since Ramon Ramirez did it with the Giants in 2011.
New York Yankees: Continuing their pattern of living by the long ball, the Yankees have hit 20 homers, accounting for 34 of the team's 49 runs scored (69.4 percent).
New York Mets: Through Pete Alonso's first nine games, the rookie first baseman owns a .441 isolated power (slugging percentage minus batting average). That's higher than the slugging percentages of Ronald Acuna Jr., Justin Turner, J.T. Realmuto, Charlie Blackmon, and Juan Soto.
Oakland Athletics: After issuing 21 walks to 315 batters last year (6.7 percent), Blake Treinen has given up six free passes against 33 hitters (18.2 percent), including walking the bases loaded to blow a save.
Pittsburgh Pirates: Chris Archer has induced the lowest rate of contact on pitches inside the strike zone, leading all of baseball with a 67.7 percent Z-Contact%. The previous seven leaders in that metric have finished no lower than third in Cy Young voting.
Philadelphia Phillies: Since beginning his Phillies career, Bryce Harper has two homers with an exit velocity higher than 113.5 mph. That equals his total from the previous seven seasons.
San Diego Padres: The 6-4 Padres sit two games above .500 for the first time since May 14, 2016, when the club was 19-17.
San Francisco Giants: Giants outfielders own an abysmal .194/.239/.271 slash line with one home run and 40 strikeouts.
Seattle Mariners: Daniel Vogelbach leads all of baseball in exit velocity, averaging 98.8 mph on his 11 batted-ball events.
St. Louis Cardinals: From 2014-18, Andrew Miller allowed a grand total of 22 home runs while collecting 466 strikeouts. As a member of the Cardinals, the left-hander has allowed three homers and struck out two.
Tampa Bay Rays: The Rays' relief corps has surrendered 10 walks total. Five hitters in the league have taken at least that many. Somewhat amazingly, though, each Rays reliever has at least one walk.
Texas Rangers: Twenty-four of Joey Gallo's 38 plate appearances have ended in either a walk, strikeout, or home run for a three true outcome rate of 63.2 percent. That would be the highest mark over a season since the 58.7 percent TTO rate posted by Gallo himself in 2017.
Toronto Blue Jays: Matt Shoemaker has thrown the most innings among pitchers who haven't allowed a single run. Bonus fun fact: Of the 13 hitters on the Blue Jays with at least 10 plate appearances, only Richard Urena and Freddy Galvis have batting averages above .200.
Washington Nationals: Trevor Rosenthal has made four appearances for his new team and has yet to record a single out, extending a five-game streak dating back to 2017. That's already set the record to begin a season, and he's one appearance short of breaking the all-time record.